Brock Lesnar is unarguably the greatest force to have competed in a WWE ring in the last 10 years or so. Without a doubt, he remains one of the company’s biggest draws who also happens to be a huge mainstream attraction for the company. This is the reason he gets special treatment by the WWE who also claims the biggest payday in WWE history.
This definitely means that Brock Lesnar has more influence on the WWE creative team than almost any other superstar from the roster. It appears that four years ago, he refused to work against a former WWE Champion from India which in turn, brought a big change to the main event of Survivor Series 2017.
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According to the recent report of Wrestling Observer Radio, Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder Mahal in 2017 back when the latter was the WWE Champion. The two men were scheduled to compete against each other at Survivor Series in 2017 (in a champion vs. champion scenario with Brock Lesnar being the Universal Champion). But then before the PPV, Mahal ended up dropping his WWE title to AJ Styles.
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Brock Lesnar’s unwillingness led to another dream match
Dave Meltzer noted in his report that the reason the title change took place is because of Brock Lesnar who wasn’t keen on working with Mahal in a match despite it being advertised for the PPV. Therefore WWE switched up the plans, which led to AJ Styles becoming the new WWE champion. The reason for Brock refusing to face Mahal was not mentioned as the source simply stated the following,
“You know why they did that? Because Brock did not want to work with him [Jinder Mahal],”
Jinder Mahal held the WWE Championship for nearly six months in 2017, from May to November. But then mysteriously lost the title on a regular episode of SmackDown to AJ Styles. This move also prohibited Mahal from visiting India as the reigning WWE Champion, just a few weeks later. But as you can see, The Phenomenal One beating Jinder for the title was not the original plan pitched by the WWE.
In the end, Styles and Brock Lesnar did end up having a great match at Survivor Series which also set the tone for a lengthy title reign for Styles. That reign lasted for 371 days which stays as the longest-reign with the WWE Championship on Smackdown in the modern era.
